My wife and I knew when we bought this 1995 Lexus SC400 from the owner of this ridiculous house outside Cleveland, Ohio that the pricy Nakamichi sound system didn't work. Ok. Fine. But the intermittent glowing of the "TRAC" light, that's independent of the traction control system being on or off, the ABS light occasionally going on and the power adjustable mirrors not working all conspired to have both of us taking a deep breath followed by, "oh, god, what have we done?" The problems all being intermittent, save for the dead mirrors, even the radio works sometimes, assuaged our anxiety but only so much.
One of the weirder things our "Lexie" also did from the get go, I guess we deliriously failed to notice it on our test drive, was when we'd roll up the driver's side window a muffled yet sharp "crack" sound, like a rock hitting the windshield, would emanate from deep behind the genuine wood trimmed door panel. Also, from inside the driver's door, there was a strangely pleasant sound of small maraca's shaking when we drove at speed on the highway; no such pleasantries came from the passenger side door panel. Something was definitely up inside the driver's door but hakuna matata, right? No worries, it's a Toyota and nothing ever goes wrong with a Toyota.
One recent morning, my wife called me annoyed and semi-frantic that driver's side window got stuck about half way up. "Relax," I purred, "It's nothing." Of course, I had no idea at the time what was wrong but knowing my wife's reaction to whatever is wrong in situations like this is directly linked to my reaction, I played it cool. Besides, how bad could the problem be?
I dismantled the door and found the regulator had broken. Actually, from the looks of it, it was probably hanging on for dear life for quite a while and that mariachi band playing was its death throws. What dismantled my stomach lining was the difficulty I had not only finding a replacement regulator but one that was affordable. The first one I found was on a website that had the cheesy look of a site you don't admit to perusing but at just shy of $300 I knew I had to be able to due better. I was further traumatized when the big Lexus dealer in Cleveland quoted me $1162.86 for one. Oh. My god. The junkyard I get 99% of my parts from didn't have one either. The hell was I going to do?
Keep calling junkyards, that's what I did. I don't know how these places work but it would appear that they're all not on the same network. My regular yard in Cleveland didn't have one nor could find one but a yard in Youngstown hooked me up with one off a 1994 SC300 that was, get this, in Cleveland. Best was they wanted just $75 for it and that included the motor - not that I needed it. I even got to swarm all over the donor car for other parts I might need. Unfortunately, there wasn't much left to pick off the poor thing.
Anyway, the replacement regulator went in without drama except for the fact that the window sticks up out of the door by about an inch or so. Blame that on the part coming from a '94 and not a '95 - apparently Lexus altered the body slightly mid year 1994 - who knew? Frustrating but it is what it is but since this has become the wife's ride and she could care less, I have better things to do than fuss over something that she finds inconsequential. She's happy and that's all that matters.
Happy wife, happy life. Let's fix that radio next.
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